The Poet House 2025 Year in Review

Care-Centered Poetry. Community Impact.

As we close out 2025, we want to take a moment to reflect, celebrate, and say thank you.

This year marked a period of growth, intention, and deepened care at The Poet House. What began as a shared dream between artists has continued to grow into a thriving, multi-program spoken word community rooted in Austin.

A Letter to Our Community

In 2025, The Poet House began formally shaping our organization. We celebrated the one-year anniversary of the every.Word Poetry open mic while entering our fifth year of Courageous Cadence programming. What began as a shared dream has grown into one of the largest spoken word poetry communities in Austin, bringing together poets connected to many different spoken word spaces across the city.

Throughout this year, our community truly showed up. Poets and supporters came together to support one another, share their talents, and help us cultivate a growing space rooted in care. While our schedules have grown fuller and our presence across the broader Austin poetry scene has become more focused, we remain deeply grateful to be part of the Austin poetry renaissance.

At our core, all we want to do is write and perform poetry. We have dedicated much of our time and energy to maintaining a space where spoken word poets can consistently share their work among people who truly love the craft.

As we continue to grow, we hope to pay more poets, connect artists to new opportunities, and create even more meaningful moments for our community. As two individuals balancing full-time jobs alongside this work, nurturing The Poet House has not always been easy. We are profoundly thankful to our board members, committee members, volunteers, community members, and partners for the in-kind support, care, and labor that have made this dream possible.

With gratitude,

Michael Hatcher & Jasmine Games

Programming & Events

In 2025, The Poet House produced free, sliding scale, and ticketed events across Austin, centering accessibility and consistency.

This year, we hosted:

• 42 adult open mics

• 1 youth open mic

• 12 adult workshops

• 4 youth intensive workshops

• 2 underground slams

• 1 poetry cypher

• 1 staged production

• Black History Month and Juneteenth celebrations

• 3 mutual aid events

Total recorded attendance: 2,013+

Because our open mic is free and held in publicly accessible spaces, attendance totals are estimated. Based on consistently packed and high-traffic events, we are confident actual attendance is higher.

Artists in Community

We are committed to building pathways, not just stages.

In 2025, our programs supported:

• 351+ open mic poets

• 128+ open mic musicians

• 12 featured poets

• 8 open mic hosts

• 5 resident youth poets

Every performance, whether first-time or seasoned, contributed to a living ecosystem of spoken word in Austin.

Youth Education & Courageous Cadence

Youth voice is not an add-on. It is at our core.

This year, Courageous Cadence:

• Served 5 youth participants

• Facilitated 4 intensive workshops

• Employed 2 teaching artists and 3 guest artists

• Provided 16 hours of instruction

A standout moment was seeing Courageous Cadence youth produce, perform, and host a family-friendly open mic, stepping fully into leadership and creative agency.

Digital & Media Impact

Poetry did not stop at the mic.

In 2025, our recorded performances reached thousands of viewers across platforms:

• Top Instagram poetry videos reached 3.6K–5.7K views

• TikTok performances reached up to 53K views

These recordings extend the life of live poetry and preserve cultural memory beyond the room.

Slam & Competitive Poetry

every.Word Poetry showed up strong on regional and national slam stages in 2025.

National Stage

• Blackberry Peach National Poetry Slam (Albuquerque, NM)

• Jasmine Games advanced to Final Stage and placed Top 10 nationally in her first-ever national slam finals

• Michael Hatcher earned 2nd place in the Haiku Death Match

Regional Stage

• Right2Write Poetry Slam Festival (Dallas / Oak Cliff, TX)

• Jasmine Games earned:

  • 1st Place – Nerd Slam

  • 2nd Place – Haiku Death Match

  • 5th Place – Slam Finals

These moments affirmed Austin’s presence within broader slam lineage and competitive craft.

Shared Wins & Special Moments

Some moments deserve to be named:

• Launch and continuation of Poesía Cada.Palabra, a Spanish-language open mic

• Production of The Blasphemy of a Good Bath, an original staged spoken word work

  “My favorite moment was the first night of Blasphemy. None of us knew what to expect, but we still put it together.” — Michael Hatcher

• Performance at the Texas State Capitol for Black History Month

• Our first City of Austin engagement as an organization, hosting open mic programming for the Vinyl Brunch celebrating 100 years of the Carver Branch Library

• SXSW sponsorship through a community ticket giveaway

• Jasmine Games named a 2025 Austin Poet Laureate finalist

Partnerships & Collaborations

In 2025, The Poet House collaborated with artists, organizations, and community partners whose shared vision expanded our reach and deepened our impact. We are especially grateful to our venue partners, cultural organizations, educators, and civic collaborators across Austin.

We also extend heartfelt thanks to the artists and organizations who collaborated with our team and community members individually, helping expand our creative ecosystem beyond our own stages.

Organizational Capacity & Growth

Behind the scenes, we focused on sustainability.

In 2025:

• 2 core staff supported programming and operations

• 4 board members served

• 13 committee members contributed leadership and labor

We made significant progress toward filing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit by intentionally nurturing relationships with regular community members. Going into 2026, we officially have all required board members in place to properly file.

Whether you served year-round, for a season, or for a moment, your presence and labor mattered. Thank you for being part of The Poet House.

Looking Ahead

As we move into 2026, we remain committed to:

• Care-centered programming

• Paying and supporting artists ethically

• Expanding youth education

• Strengthening partnerships

• Building sustainable infrastructure

Here’s to gathering and caring together in 2026.Thank you for growing with us. We can’t wait to continue this journey together.